The African American Experience 

Bayard Rustin and Indian Participant, Gandhi Sculpture Dedication

Courtesy of New York City Parks Photo Archive, Neg. 60057-2. Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was a leading 20th-century civil rights activist. He helped to form the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942, a pacifist organization modeled after the principles of non-violent resistance of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. Also around this time, he helped organize the Free India Committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Inspired by early black labor organizer A. Phillip Randolph, Rustin became active in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, he was a principle organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech The next year he founded the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, an organization dedicated to civil rights and social justice. Late in life, Rustin was an outspoken advocate for gay and lesbian rights, and a year before his death delivered the keynote speech at the Gandhi sculpture unveiling in Union Square Park. Rustin, who was joined at this event by Gandhi's grandson and great grand-nephew, is honored by a marker in Ralph Bunche Park opposite the United Nations.